Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio clapped from the dais while Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California joined him from the House floor. Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin jumped to his feet just a few seats away.

But by and large, members of the House Republican Conference in attendance remained seated and stoic, un-enthused at the prospect of undertaking the politically perilous immigration overhaul during an election year, or at all.

As Republicans head to their annual three-day retreat, the challenge for leadership is to ensure that if the team chooses to rise in favor of immigration changes on the House floor again later this year, their conference follows.

What remains unclear is whether leadership has a solid strategy to round up the support. Boehner will unveil a one-sheet document this week laying out principles for the rewrite, but most members have not seen it and some acknowledge it may be rejected outright.

Similarly, the conference is undecided on whether to fight or flee on a hike to the nation’s borrowing limit, which they must pass next month. The topic will be given equal heft at the retreat, which started Wednesday in Cambridge, Md.

On immigration, the biggest challenge is to figure out how to legalize the status of the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. Ryan indicated in an interview with CBS News on Tuesday that there is hope for a measure passing the House.

“Some like a probationary status, where they have to go through acknowledging that they broke the law and make amends with that. Whether it’s paying back taxes, fines, learning English, learning civics, making sure that they do things to make amends with the fact that they did not follow our law,” he said.

Yet leaders are struggling against a sense in the conference that taking on the overhaul is simply a bad idea this year. Chief among the reasons against is that it is an election year and many Republicans are afraid of drawing a primary challenge if they support the policy. That view has been espoused by members of GOP leadership, such as Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma, and proponents of a rewrite, such as Rep. John Carter of Texas, who had been involved in bipartisan talks to craft comprehensive legislation.

Some Republicans do not trust that the outcome will skew in their favor. At a gathering of the conservative Republican Study Committee on Tuesday, Rep. Mick Mulvaney, who has stated that he generally supports an immigration rewrite, told the group that they should be wary of sending bills to the Senate, where they can be conferenced and sent back to the House as policy Republicans do not support. As an example, he pointed to the farm bill. He voted for the House version before voting against the conference report on Wednesday.

“If the new normal is going to be that we pass really good House bills but get killed in conference, I think it does raise legitimate questions about whether or not we should go to conference” on immigration, he said.

If the path of the farm bill is precedent, though, Republican leaders may be hopeful. It passed Wednesday with 162 Republicans in support, despite calls to vote it down from conservative outside groups such as Heritage Action for America.

But staunch opponents of an immigration rewrite have signaled they will ramp up their pressure as overhaul efforts intensify. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said Tuesday night that if leaders decide to pursue the legislationafter the retreat, he will become even more vocal on the issue.

“We can have the discussion inside the room, and we can have the discussion outside the room,” he said.

Views are varied on how to approach the debt limit, as well. Republican leaders have noted several demands, but have yet to coalesce around one. In the CBS News interview, Ryan noted the conference may ask the Senate to pass legislation to create jobs, a broad category of Republican bills that include anti-regulatory, energy and other legislation.

Cantor told CNBC in an interview earlier this month that the conference may push the president to approve the stalled Keystone XL oil pipeline project or ease regulations on natural gas production.

Others in the conference have cited demands to do away with a portion of the Affordable Care Act called “risk corridors,” which reimburses insurance companies in some cases to avoid premium hikes.

But Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., took to the Senate floor Wednesday to tell Republicans that the Senate will refuse to negotiate.

“Republican leaders … seem unable to stop playing silly games with this issue to make the tea party happy,” she said. “So let me be very clear: Democrats aren’t going to negotiate over whether or not the government should pay its bills. And if Republicans continue down this path of empty threats and dangerous demands, they will get exactly what they got the last time they tried to play politics with our economic recovery: nothing.”

Last year, the conference headed into its retreat unsure of what to demand and emerged with a plan to force the Senate to pass a budget in exchange for a debt limit hike.

Much like last year, the conference has no clue which way to go on the matter heading into this retreat, said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who was instrumental in crafting last year’s plan.

“We don’t know,” he said. “I think it’s all going to get hashed out here in the next couple of weeks.”

Comments (6)

Amberteka

Jan. 29, 2014
4:49 p.m.

Right now on 3 Gallop Polls, even they admit, that even with phony push polls, designed to greatly exaggerate the support for any kind of amnesty in the USA…The number of Americans who want it brought up is 3%.Rasussen. Pew Hispanic………..Americans are about fed up with amnesty. And the people who push it.
1.North Carolina DID NOT pass instate tuition for illegals.
2. Virginia DID not pass instate tuition for illegals.
Not much reported in the Pro amnesty anti American Worker Media of the USA.
Keep your eye on Indiana. The RNC/Chamber of commerce..is spending millions to ram Illegal alien cheap college tuition and driver’s licenses down their throats. if they say NO. that is 3 USA wins in a week.

And none of these people have a drop of pity or compassion for American kids who graduate with crushing debt and no hope of a job. Or those of the 37% of those unemployed. It is not “KOOL’ with the elites to support Americans.
Rush Limbaugh says Boehner is doing it because he is Corporately controlled. Not that he likes Obama or any of the other conspiracy theories. Just that Tom Donahue is who he answers too. paraphrased but that is what he said on Tuesday. And Rush keeps him 20 million + audience by being right. most of the time.
Paul Ryan is odd. Unstable. Like he is having a mid life crisis on steroids. McCarthy has tolerated illegal immigration for so long that now his CA district is in danger. Hispanics…..don’t vote GOP. They are DNC. he knows that so now he is DNC lite. Most other GOP Reps……are safe in their districts. As long as they don’t decide that they too can pick and chose as to which laws we keep or break. And the constitution is just a guideline.

You can go down the line on Illegal Immigration. Cuss and cry and lie..and it boils down to Illegal immigration is a cancer on the USA. The states with the most illegal immigration have the most poverty and the most unemployment.
No one in the press does. because mass immigration and toleration of illegal immigration fits their agenda.

And now..the public despises them at about the same rate as they do the politicians and their lobbyists who lie and push agendas which benefit only the uber rich.

Raylusk

Jan. 29, 2014
4:55 p.m.

Bull. Americans have been consistent that immigration reform should include a pathway to citizenship. You have misrepresented what those polls say. They say immigration reform should not be a priority over the economy and a few other issues. They say absolutely nothing about amnesty. Zero. Now quit trying to deceive people.

left wing

Jan. 29, 2014
8:17 p.m.

the dems posing as pubs will pass amnesty and bankruptcy and will give the dems control in the midterms.

Santiago Alemedia

Jan. 30, 2014
9:40 a.m.

All that blubbering in the House about unsustainable debt and the government taking money away from hard working Americans–and then they go and pass that fat Farm Bill that’s just full of giveaways to wealthy ag and dairy and sugar industries. Thanks to the 187 who voted against it. A pox on all the other fakers and phonies in Congress who voted to pass this expensive stinker.